Among the 200 distributed questionnaires, 127 were recruited; showing an answer rate of around 63.5%. Table 1 shows the demographic and personal features, past history and COVID-19 history of the residents.
Table 1
Demographic and personal characteristics, past history and COVID-19 history of all residents
Variable | |
---|
Age (mean ± SD) | | 30.9 ± 2.4 |
Sex | Male | 49 (51.6%) |
Female | 46 (48.4%) |
BMI (mean ± SD) | 24.8 ± 3.4 | |
Underlying disease* | No | 79 ± 83.2 |
Yes | 16 ± 16.8 |
Underlying disease* in family members** | No | 36 ± 37.9 |
Yes | 59 ± 62.1 |
Marital status | Single | 47 (49.5%) |
Married | 48 (50.5%) |
Residency year | First year | 22 (22.1%) |
Second year | 20 (21.1%) |
Third year | 28 (29.5%) |
Fourth year | 25 (26.3%) |
Smoking | Yes | 12 (12.6%) |
No | 81 (85.3%) |
History of COVID-19 affection | No | 61 (64.2%) |
Yes, based on symptoms | 25 (26.3%) |
Yes, based on a positive test | 7 (7.4%) |
Having children | No | 70 (73.7%) |
Yes | 25 (26.3) |
Living wih parents | No | 69 (72.6) |
Yes | 24 (25.3) |
*Including diabetes mellitus, hypertension, ischemic heart disease or heart failure, respiratory disorders, immunosuppressive states, psychological disorders ; ** Including only members of the family who live with the resident; SD = standard deviation |
Regarding educational issues, 62 (51.2%) residents reported a significant decrease in the number of training operations. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused new arrangements in the work hours of professors in order to avoid crowding of hospitals and provide possibility for COVID-19 wards to be visited by specialties for their surgical complaints. Therefore, we inquired residents about any change in the rate of supervision of their professors over their surgical activities in the COVID-19 era. Among all residents, 84 (70.5%) believed that the presence of their professors in the operating room had decreased, and 101 (85.9%) stated that their residency training had been impaired.
Residents had to attend to COVID-19 patients in two different ways: first, for prenatal care or management of surgical and gynecological diseases of patients affected by COVID-19, second as a general practitioner in compensation for the shortages in residents and specialists of infectious disease in the management of COVID-19 patients. Results of our study showed that 103 (80.5%) of the residents had to manage COVID-19 patients which were directly related to their field of residency, and 48 (37.5%) had to take care of COVID-19 patients that were not related to their field. Seventy-four of the residents (61.1%) stated that they had been instructed about the suitable approach to COVID-19 patients, and 87 (71.9%) declared that they could appropriately manage these cases. Among them, only 74 (61.7%) stated that appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) was provided for them by the hospital.
None of the residents had a previous history of mental disorder. However, the questionnaires showed that 123 (96.1%) experienced emotional problems in the COVID-19 circumstances. Fifty-six residents (45.5%) reported being highly stressed about the possibility of getting affected by the disease, while 100 (81.3%) were worried about transferring the virus to their family. In addition, 54 residents (43.9%) had become excessively obsessed for cleaning and disinfecting themselves and their clothes. The worries of the residents about themselves and their family were not related with their affection with COVID-19 (p = 0.56), their underlying disease (p = 0.62), smoking history (p = 0.59), their presence in COVID ward (p = 0.65), the PPE supplied by the hospital (p = 0.87), and the physical health status of their family (p = 0.91).
Logistic regression analysis did not show any statistically significant association between CMH and sex (p = 0.4), history of affection by COVID-19 (p = 0.69), underlying diseases in the resident (p = 0.99) or the family members (p = 0.42), supplies of PPE (p = 0.99), presence of professors (p = 0.7), managing COVID-19 patients (p = 0.1), and practicing in COVID-19 wards (p = 0.1).